U-T San Diego reporters Peter Rowe and John Wilkens explore how WWII shaped the “Greatest Generation” and our home. These stories will focus on local men and women who helped preserve our nation and re-create our city. The series is supported by U-T’s video partner, the Media Arts Center San Diego.

Friday is the day set aside to remember Pearl Harbor, the surprise Japanese attack 71 years ago that ushered the United States into World War II.

It was as horrific and monumental a day as any in U.S. history: 2,400 dead, 1,200 wounded, 20 Navy ships sunk or damaged, 340 airplanes shot up, America’s sense of itself and its place in the world forever altered.

FILE - In this Dec. 7, 1941 file photo, officers' wives head to their quarters after investigating the sound of an explosion and seeing smoke in distance in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The two heard neighbor Mary Naiden, then an Army ...
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FILE - In this Dec. 7, 1941 photo provided by the U.S. Navy, sailors stand among wrecked airplanes at Ford Island Naval Air Station as they watch the explosion of the USS Shaw in the background, during the Japanese surprise ...
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FILE - This Dec. 7, 1941 image provided by the U.S. War Department made from a Japanese newsreel shows Japanese planes over Hawaii during the attack on Pearl Harbor. (AP Photo/U.S. War Department)
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FILE - In this Dec. 7, 1941 file photo, a Japanese plane goes into its last dive as it heads toward the ground in flames after it was hit by Naval anti-aircraft fire during a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, ...
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People who were alive then — fewer and fewer with each passing year — can tell you where they were when they heard the news about the Pacific Fleet in Hawaii. And how whatever they were doing at that moment suddenly seemed unimportant.

They’ll tell you how frightened everybody was that more attacks were coming. In San Diego, an anti-aircraft battery and searchlights were put on top of the El Cortez Hotel.

But there was no invasion of the U.S. mainland after Pearl Harbor. The Japanese never came.

On Guam, they came.

“Goodbye, life”

Harris Chuck had been a Marine for less than a year when they sent him to Guam, a tropical island in the North Pacific that had been in U.S. hands since it was captured during the Spanish-American War in 1898.

“I had no choice,” Chuck said. He was almost 24 when he joined 150 other Marines and 270 sailors stationed on the island.

It wasn’t a bad assignment. Chuck wound up working traffic enforcement, catching speeders. He got to drive a hot Ford, a red two-door coupe, the fastest thing on the island. He once gave his colonel a ticket for going 45 mph in a 15 mph zone.

The tensions that had been building for months between the U.S. and Japan were felt on Guam. In October 1941, the families of the servicemen were sent home. The island’s limited defenses — a few machine guns and the USS Penguin, a minesweeper — were readied. Plans were made to destroy sensitive documents and equipment.

When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Guam learned about it from a radio message at about 6 a.m. local time. “We didn’t know what the hell was going on with the world,” Chuck said.

Then it was their turn. Nine planes swooped in at about 8:30. “One guy must not have liked me or something,” Chuck said. “He was bap-bap-bap-bap with his gun and I saw an open window into a basement and I went right through there.”

The initial attack lasted several hours, targeting military buildings, oil-storage yards and lookout stations. The Pan Air Hotel was hit. The next day, the planes returned for more bombing and strafing.

Early on the third day, Chuck was sent out with others to destroy anything the Japanese might find useful in the armory and the motor pool. On their way back, they saw the invaders, 5,000 strong, coming ashore, rifles fixed with bayonets, pushing past small-arms skirmishes and heading toward the central plaza in Agana, the capital.

“I thought, ‘Oh, Jesus, goodbye life,’” Chuck said.

Two of the Marines with him tried to flee and were killed. Chuck said their heads were lopped off. The Americans were ordered to surrender and line up in the plaza. A Marine deemed disobedient was fatally stabbed with a bayonet.